Any Other World
by PuddleJumper9
Summary: Totally AU. A different take on Castle, what would happen if Beckett and Castle had never met during that fateful investigation, but met via another method: Beckett's son. First fanfic, so reviews and critiques would be appreciated.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is my first fanfic, so any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I'd like to know if you think I managed to get people in character, or what you thought could use improving. I don't mind if your comment is something along the lines of "it was rubbish" as long as you say what parts were rubbish and how I can improve it. Also I think the spelling and grammar are okay, but if you spot any glaringly obvious mistakes please tell me.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Castle. If I did, it would not be as good. It would however be currently airing in NZ, so I suppose something can be said for owning Castle.**

Richard Castle stood up and stretched. It had been a long day; Paula had scheduled a book signing for the day he had returned to New York. Honestly, wasn't it bad enough that he'd had to spend a week with Meredith going on and on about her oh so busy schedule after she had specifically said she would have enough time to spend some quality time with Alexis? Not only that but then he had to put up with hundreds of fan girls (and occasionally boys) squealing and squeeing and gushing about "oh, I'm your biggest fan" and "where do you get your ideas" and really creepy old ladies trying to slip him their numbers. Just after getting off a plane from L.A, it was enough to give anyone a headache. And then, just to add insult you injury, his mother had dragged Alexis off along with his credit card because she had an audition next week and absolutely _had_ to have a new outfit. He wouldn't be surprised if she came back with an entirely new wardrobe.

He was brought out of his reverie by a scuffle, a boy, about ten or so was trying to get into the bookstore but was being detained by a security guard. Rick moved closer, just close enough that he could see the boy a bit clearer and hear what he was saying. He was curious as to why a kid wanted a book signed and also wondered where his parents were, this is New York, you don't let your kids wander off; anything could happen to them if they're not close. The boy had a mop of dark brownish-black hair and a face full of freckles. He was trying puppy dog eyes on the security guard, a sight that had Rick almost laughing out loud, the eyes probably would have worked had the security guard not been ex Special Forces. He suppressed a grin at the idea of George the security man caving at puppy dog eyes from a kid, nah, it'd never happen. However, there was urgency in the boy's movements and in his tone of voice as if he just wanted to get the book signed and get out of there. Almost as if he knew he wasn't supposed to be there but felt he had to be anyway.

"Look, please Sir, you have to let me in, I have to get this book signed. Please," the boy begged, managing to sound polite yet inject a slight whine into his voice to sound rather pitiful.

"Sorry kid, I can't do that, the book signing's over, you're too late." The security guard shrugged seemingly oblivious child's distress.

There were tears forming in his eyes as he sagged, deflated. "It's so not fair, I was like, two minutes late. Look, Sir, please. You have no idea how important this is I _need_ to get this book signed, look, the author guy is still there, just let me in for like, one minute so I can get it signed, then I'll go, I swear! Just one minute, please."

Rick decided that it didn't matter if the kid was late, he reminded Rick of Alexis who was probably just a couple of years older than the kid, and he hated to see a child in so much distress so he decided to step in. He also wanted to find out why the kid was trying to get a book of his signed, when he didn't seem to have any real interest in the book himself, he barely seemed to know Rick's name and didn't seem excited to meet him, and he wanted to find out why the kid was alone.

"It's okay, George, let the kid in," at George the security guard's sceptical look he expanded, "it's obviously important, and I'd never want to disappoint a loyal fan." He gave the kid a smile, and in return received a mumbled thank you.

The boy followed Rick to the table that was about to be packed away, and stood awkwardly as Rick told the staff of the bookstore to hold up for a second. Rick sat down and picked up the last working pen he had – he had gone through a heap of others that day – and looked expectantly at the boy.

"So, who can I make this out to?" He asked. "You aren't really the generic fan type I usually get, too young for one," he said with a grin.

"It's not for me," the boy said looking nervous. "It's for my mom."

"Oh and where is she today?" Rick asked, wondering why the child was trying to get a book signed for his mother if she couldn't even be bothered to wait with her son.

"She's at work, it was supposed to be her day off but she got called in early again," Rick frowned, what kind of a woman left their kid to wander the city while they worked especially on their day off, surely she could have found a sitter, a nanny or had some family that could watch this boy, seeing his frown the boy rushed on. "But she's a huge fan and she wanted to try and make in here today, but she had to go to work and I know I'm not really supposed to be here but it would make her feel so much better cause this has been a really hard couple of weeks and it's probably gonna get worse for her but she loves your books, they're the most read books in the house and I think this is her favourite one and if I can get it signed then it might help, but this is always a bad month for her and I just want to make it better for her." He said it all in one breath, really fast, as if that would make Rick more amiable towards signing the book for his mother.

"So, what's your name then?" He asked as he held out his hand for the book.

"Jack, my mom's name is Kate." Rick looked down at the book – Storm Season – it was well read but still in really good condition, whoever read this book, if it was indeed one of the most read books in the house, this Kate must look after her books really well. This however did not excuse the fact that her son – Jack – was wandering around New York while she was at work, he wasn't sure what to write to a woman that could do that to their own child, it reminded him of Meredith, choosing her career and ignoring the needs of her child almost to the point of criminal negligence. Rick was about to start writing, when he heard a phone start ringing. He checked his, but paused when he saw Jack pull out a phone. Jack frowned as he looked at the caller id and answered it immediately.

"Hello Uncle Roy," he said cautiously, then flinched back from the angry voice on the other end of the line. It appears, Rick thought, that 'Uncle Roy' was not very happy with Jack, so maybe he had been left with family. Rick put the pen down as he eavesdropped on the conversation, an occupational hazard on his behalf, and also he was naturally nosy. "I know, I'm not there, I went to get a book signed for mom," he started pacing anxiously. "I'm at Barnes & Nobel on 82nd and Broadway. What happened Roy? Why are you phoning? Where's mom?" This last question was said with a breaking voice, as tears started to fall down his face he replied to whatever came from his Uncle. "I'll stay here till someone picks me up, I promise. I wont move." As he closed the phone he turned to Rick, "I-I'm sorry but I'm going to have to go, s-sorry for wasting your time." He started shaking in an effort to keep his emotions under control. Rick gave it no thought; he just put the book down and gave the boy a hug. That was all it took for Jack to dissolve into tears and he sobbed into Rick's chest. Rick had a sinking feeling in his stomach, something really bad had just happened to Jack's mother. This thought was cemented as an unmarked Crown Vic with sirens blaring pulled up outside the bookstore and a detective got out of the car looking grim. Jack had pulled away from Rick at the sound of the siren, and stated running towards the detective. Rick trailed behind the boy concerned that the detective was going to have bad news, was going to drop the bombshell, then leave the kid alone and distressed. His paternal instincts were beginning to show through.

"Uncle Javi! What happened? Is mom okay? What happened?" Jack was asking as he flung himself into the detective's arms. Rick paused, how was it that Jack knew the Detective?

"Hey little Beckett, you're mom's gonna be okay, Ryan's with her at the moment," the Detective replied returning the hug. "We had a breakthrough on the case, and when your mom went to talk to one of the witnesses it turned out he wasn't as innocent as we first thought, we got him, but he roughed your mom up pretty bad. It's lucky she managed to call us just as things turned bad, we got there fast, but she's probably gonna be in the hospital for a couple of days, and off work for even longer."

Jack looked up at the Detective, "you still got the guy thought, right?"

"Yeah kid," the Detective replied then smiled grimly. "He managed to walk into a few doors and walls on the way back to the precinct. C'mon, let's get you to the hospital to visit your mom. See if you can talk her into staying at home for at least half of the specified time off."

As the Detective led Jack out of the door, a thought struck Rick; he'd never signed the book it was still sitting there on the desk where he'd left it to comfort the boy. He opened it, the front page read 'From the Library of Katherine Beckett' he looked at the messy handwritten scrawl of her name, and decided the she must be a cop, or a detective herself for her son to be so comfortable with the Detective that picked that had stopped by, that and the fact that said Detective had said Kate had been injured while questioning a witness. He looked for the car, but it had already gone.

"Damn, just my luck," he said as he realised that he would probably never see Jack again nor get the chance to meet this Katherine Beckett.

"What's just your luck?" Alexis asked as she walked in with his mother in tow. "And why are you still set up, I thought that you were supposed to be done, like, half an hour ago?"

"I was," he replied. "But then I had the most interesting of conversations…" He trailed off looking at the book.

"Come on Dad, let's go home, I have tons of homework to do, and doesn't Gina want another few chapters written soon?"

Rick looked incredulously at his daughter, "you're what? Twelve? And they're giving you _homework_? That's cruel!"

"Dad, I've been getting homework since I started school! It's not that bad," Alexis rolled her eyes and turned to Martha.

"Come on Richard, you must be longing to get out of here. And I'm sure you want me home as soon as possible so you don't have to keep worrying about your credit card," Martha said with a grin, not really noticing her son's preoccupation.

"Mother, you didn't," Rick whined at the mention of the credit card.

"Well you'll just have to go home and find out, wont you?" Martha said smugly as she ushered Alexis out of the door. Rick took one last look at the book in his hands, then, deciding on a plan, he sighed and book in hand followed his mother and daughter out into the nice sunny New York afternoon.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: So, here's the second chapter. I'd like to thank everyone who added the story to their alerts and/or favourites. I was blown away by the numbers of you, I had a huge smile on my face all day because of you, and I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to review, it means a lot to me. This chapter is occurring the same time as chapter one, it's just from Beckett's POV. I'm not so sure I have the characters in character, but please remember that Kate is a mother in this, so she does get to be all maternal sometimes. Any thoughts you have are appreciated, I'd love to know how you think I can improve my writing. Apologies for the really long A/N. Oh, and I won't be updating this fast all the time. Next week I'm without internet access for two weeks.**

**Disclaimer: Nope, still not mine. Although, when I take over the world… Nah, they still won't be mine :(**

_Earlier That Day:_

Kate Beckett groaned as her phone woke her up for yet another morning in a row. Today of all days she wished a body hadn't dropped; it was her first day off in three weeks and she just wanted to spend the day with her son. They hadn't spent nearly enough time together recently because Kate had been in the middle of a case that was about to turn serial, or probably already had. Two weeks and four bodies, all blond female victims that had been beaten to death, but there was no DNA evidence left on them and nothing to connect the victims together or to anyone else.

"Beckett," she barked into the phone, perhaps with a little more force than necessary.

"Sorry Beckett, I know it's your day off, but we really need you on this one. There's been another body found, just like the other ones. There were a couple of witnesses and we're really understaffed," Esposito's voice came through the phone. "If you can't come in we understand, but Montgomery said that if you do you can have three days paid leave after we wrap this one up."

Kate sighed; they knew she would come in. It wasn't fair; she had a son to think about too but then, whoever was dead had been someone's son or daughter and she owed it to them to find their killer.

"Yeah, I'll be there soon. Do you have an address or should I just meet you at the precinct?" she reached across to her bedside table where she turned on her lamp and scrambled for a piece of paper and a pen in case she needed to write down an address.

She groaned again as she ended the call and looked at the clock. It proclaimed the time in angry red numbers 5.48. What was she going to tell Jack? They had both been looking forward to today since she got this case. There had been no leads and the bodies just kept piling up. Two weeks, and if they didn't get any further in the next couple of days then the feds would be called in. And there was no way Kate wanted to loose this case to the feds, although if it caught the killer then she wouldn't complain. Much. Out loud and in the vicinity of said feds, or Montgomery. However grousing with Esposito and Ryan was fair game, no cop wanted the fed stealing their case, no matter what the outcome. Kate decided to get as ready as possible before waking her son, let him sleep, she thought, he certainly needs it. As she was eating a quick breakfast and getting ready Kate was running through her mental list of people she could contact to see if any of them could look after Jack for the day. Her regular sitter was busy, and she really didn't know anyone else well enough to be calling them this early in the morning to see if they could give up their day to look after her son. She looked at her watch, 6.00, or thereabouts: time to wake Jack up.

Walking into her son's room she feels an overwhelming anger at the son-of-a-bitch that completely ruined her chance to spend the day with her son. The anger quickly fades as she spends half a minute just watching her son sleep. His face was so relaxed and trusting, like he had no idea what horrors the world held. Unfortunately, with Kate being a Detective, Jack knew very well the horrors the world held, no matter how well she tried to protect him. Things went wrong, accidents happened and Jack had seen his mother injured too many times to think that she was invincible, and it saddened Kate to know that her son was not the naïve and innocent child she was at his age. Jack was a boy wise beyond his eleven years.

"Mom, you're staring again," the subject of Kate's thoughts said. "It's creepy."

"Sorry squirt," Kate said laughing, her mood lifting instantaneously. "I have to go into work again today, another body has dropped and we think it's the same guy. I'm really sorry, I was really hoping I wouldn't have to go in, and on pretty much any other case I wouldn't but the guys really need me there and I kinda feel like I need to be there." Kate bit her lip at the end of her little speech, waiting for what she was sure to be a meltdown, she was however surprised.

"Yeah, I know mom," Jack replied, his green eyes meeting hers with understanding, and a small amount of disappointment, he was still only eleven. "It's not your fault and you need to go catch that guy before he can kill anyone else. I'll just phone some of my friends when it gets a bit later and see if I can hang out with them today, otherwise I'll watch some quality day time television," he finished off with a lopsided grin.

"How did I manage to get such an amazing kid?" Kate wondered out loud as she pulled him into a hug. "Just make sure you phone me and tell me what's happening, and don't you dare leave the apartment without an adult, and don't open the door unless you know who it is. Oh, and make sure you eat breakfast."

Jack groaned. "Mom, I'm eleven, I'm a big boy now! I know all the safety rules, that's what happens when your mom is a NYPD Detective, and I'm not going to do anything stupid. Who would make sure you eat breakfast if I don't do it?" Kate stuck her tongue out at this, but sighed conceding that he really did know how to be safe, and he knew self defence and could probably kill someone with his pinkie finger – or at least drive them nuts enough to commit suicide.

"Just… make sure you call me and let me know what you plan on doing, okay?"

"Yeah mom, don't worry about me, go and kick some bad guy butt."

Kate grinned and left Jack's bedroom to let him get some more sleep, confident that her son was smart enough to do what he was told and keep safe. As she passed the coffee table she glanced at yesterday's newspaper, she had left it open on a page with an ad for a book signing at the Barnes & Nobel bookstore on 82nd and Broadway, she had been hoping to get there today. She made a face and pulled her favourite Richard Castle book off the shelf 'Storm Season' it had been her mother's favourite book, and Kate had teased her mercilessly over the stories and the author, until her world had been turned upside down and the books were the only way she felt close to her mother. The books also had the added bonus of being a world where she could escape to, away from her father who at that point had been drowning his sorrows in alcohol and away from the sympathetic gazes of those who didn't understand that she didn't want sympathy or pity, she wanted justice. But justice was something she was never going to get. Sighing, she put it on the table next to the article on the off chance that they finally caught a break in this damned case and she got to clock out early.

Continuing her path, she left the apartment and locked the door, headed down the elevator and said goodbye to the doorman. She hopped into her Crown Vic and pulled the address she had written down earlier from her coat pocket and typed it into her GPS, pulling into the busy morning traffic; she was on her way to yet another crime scene.

…

As she pulled up to the crime scene Kat took a deep breath, she needed to completely focused on the case, they needed to find the bastard killing these people, needed to find how they were connected, something that would give them suspects, evidence, anything to give them an idea of what they were facing. She was met by Ryan as she stepped out of the car.

"What've we got Ryan?" She asked.

"Well, it seems to be the same M.O as the others we've had, female, late 20s to early 30s, well dressed, blond – although I'd call it more sandy brownish – beaten really badly," as he was relaying the information Kate was walking towards the M.E who was crouched beside the body.

"Was that the COD Lanie?" She asked as Ryan finished.

"Preliminary reports would say so, but I can't confirm anything till I get her back to the lab. And girl, what're you doin here? Weren't you supposed to be spending the day with your boy? Do I need to yell at Javi for bringing you in on your day off?" Lanie added to the effect by glancing around for Esposito as she finished.

"No Lanie," Kate laughed. "And it's 'Javi' now is it?"

"Oh shush, besides you need someone to live vicariously through."

"And is that supposed to be you or Esposito?" Kate shot back. "And please do not give me any details, my brain would explode."

"Why would your brain explode? And I hope if it does that it don't contaminate my crime scene," Esposito grumbled as he drew near. "Sorry for dragging you in Beckett, but we really need to get this guy, so it's kinda all hands on deck."

"That's alright, any witnesses?"

"A couple, we've got uniforms taking their statements now, we've started a canvas of the area to see if anyone else saw anything but so far, nada."

"Any ID on the vic?" Kate asked, going through the usual questions.

"Yeah," Lanie replied holding up a wallet. "One, Jacqueline Wells, and a cell phone if you wanted to see if you can find a contact number for any family."

"Thanks Lanie. Is that all for now guys?" Kate turned to see the other two Detectives nod in agreement. "Right, we'll head back to the precinct to go through this stuff and I'll see if I can get in contact with Jacqueline's parents."

…

When they got back to the precinct, Kate had Ryan and Esposito looking into every aspect of Jacqueline Wells' life to see if her life had intersected with any of the other victims, and she was looking through the phone, trying to reach parents or a boyfriend; someone that she could contact about the murder. There was no one listed under emergency contacts and no 'mom' or 'dad' listed anywhere. Kate was just about to give up on the phone when her own rang, it was Lanie saying she had an estimate on the TOD and was almost certain that the COD was intracranial bleeding due to blunt force trauma to the head. Or in other words, she was beaten to death. Turning to the murder board she picked up a white board marker and wrote the extra details up, then turning back to her desk she had a burst or inspiration. She decided to ring a hospital and see if they had any emergency contact details for her vic.

After spending almost 45 minutes either on hold or arguing with rather uncooperative medical professionals she finally had a number.

"Do those people _practice_ being vague?" She growled slamming the phone down, causing both Esposito and Ryan to look up.

"You alright Beckett?" Ryan asks, not really wanting to be in the way if she's mad.

"Yeah, it's just," she sighed running her hand through her hair. "It's just this case. I just want to catch this guy so I can go home and see my son. But right now, I need to go and break the bad news to the vic's parents, so if you'll excuse me." She rolled her chair back and after taking one last look at the murder board, headed out.

…

When Kate got back to the precinct she realised she hadn't heard from Jack yet, and it was almost midday, so she decided that if he wasn't out of bed yet, he most certainly should be and she'd make sure of it. Sure enough, on the second ring a sleepy voice answered the phone.

"Hey sleepy head, time to get up, it's almost lunch time." Kate said as soon as Jack had mumbled a greeting into the phone.

"Mo-om," Jack moaned. "I don't wanna get u-up, 'ts too early."

"Jonathan Beckett, it's almost 12.00 that does not count as too early, now get up! I thought you were going to see if any of your friends were busy?" Heads turned in the precinct as Kate used her 'mom voice' not a common occurrence nowadays, although she suspected she would be using it more often as Jack hit the teens.

"Yeah, all right, I'll call you when I've had lunch mom. Okay?" Kate could hear him stifling a yawn in the background

"Okay sweetie. I'll see you when I get home tonight." Kate hung up shaking her head, if it was this hard getting him out of bed now, what'll it be like in a couple of years time when he's a teenager?

As Kate walked to her desk, she set down her phone then looked at the murder board, perching on the edge of her desk as she did so.

"Yo, Beckett," Esposito called as he walked over. "Was the family any help?"

"No, no one could think of anyone who wanted to hurt Jacqueline. And she wasn't into anything that anyone could think that would bring her in contact with any of our other vics. What about you, anything pop?"

"Nah, nothing's popped so far. Honestly, I don't think anything will either, there was no connection we could find between the other victims so it should be the same here."

"Yeah, but we still need to check. I'm going to go over the witness statements, and see if I can get anything from them," she reached for the file containing the witness statements, then frowned as she read over them. "Hey Ryan, can you grab me the witness statements from the other murders? This one looks really familiar," She said as she handed it over to Esposito to look at.

"Really Beckett, I dunno," Esposito said dubiously studying it as Ryan returned with the other witness statements.

"Hah! I knew it, read this, it's almost word for word," Kate handed him another statement, and then two more as she looked through the files from the other murders. "Did they get any contact details for the witness? I want to talk to him." Together Kate and Esposito scanned through the witness statements looking for a location, unfortunately, there were multiple names and addresses listed, one for each witness statement. "Right, I'll take the last one, and we'll get uniforms on the rest of them if you guys want to keep looking to see if you can find a connection, or if you can narrow down locations," Kate stood to go and let the Capitan know that she was headed out.

…

When Kate reached the apartment listed as the address for the witness, she noted the proximity to the crime scene. The body had been found in the alleyway just off the street the apartment building was on, about three doors down. There was no doorman as it was a rather low budget apartment building so she went straight to the elevator and headed to the fourth floor. When the doors opened, Kate strode confidently to the end of the corridor and knocked at the apartment numbered 4-06. When the door opened she was greeted by a plain looking man with glasses. He was not really someone you would peg as a killer, but then, she supposed, with the right trigger, anyone could be a killer.

She held up her badge. "Detective Kate Beckett, NYPD, I'd like to ask you a few questions about the murder that occurred earlier today," with a raised eyebrow she stepped into the doorway as the witness stepped back. "We've been looking through our witness reports and there are lots of similarities between the statement we have from you and some other ones we have relating to some other murders that have taken place recently."

Kate saw the look of panic in the man's eyes but it was quickly veiled by anger. She unholstered her gun and grabbed her phone to call for backup. Hitting the speed dial for Esposito she put him on speaker as her witness-turned-suspect advanced.

"Stop where you are! I will shoot if I have to. All I want is to talk, just come down to the station with me and we can get this sorted out," she levelled the gun, aiming to debilitate him, not kill him. Her aim was skewed as he lunged at her, a lot faster than she would have thought possible and the bullet ended up harmlessly embedded in the wall as Kate found herself pressed to the opposite wall. She groaned as the air was violently expelled from her lungs and struggled against her assailant as she tried to catch her breath. He backed off a bit; just enough for Kate to gasp a lungful of air and shout for backup, praying that the phone would pick up the fight and her plea for help. She cursed under her breath as she was backhanded across the face and her head snapped to the side. She could feel the pressure return to her neck as a slim yet well muscled arm was pressed against her throat and the world started to fade to black.

In a last attempt to get free, Kate jerked her knee upwards, hitting the very sensitive area of her assailant's groin. He staggered back, and Kate slid to the ground gasping for breath. She scrambled over to where she had dropped her gun, but as soon as she reached it a hand grabbed her arm, pulling her up. The man snarled, his face twisted into a grimace of pain and rage. Kate tried to fight back, but was overpowered as her head was slammed against a wall repeatedly. She swung at him trying to distract him but ended up with her arm being pulled up behind her back. She was dazed and the pain was excruciating. She herd what sounded like a cross between a crack and a pop as her shoulder dislocated, and screamed. She prayed Esposito had gotten her call and that backup was not too far away.

When she was let go, she fell to the ground in a heap, gasping, her vision was swimming with dots, but she noticed she still had her gun clenched in her fist. Unfortunately, her attacker followed her gaze and saw the gun at much the same time she did. Kate felt a blow to her chest and was sure she heard a couple of ribs crack, and then felt pressure on her wrist, the pain shooting up to her shoulder, the one that had been dislocated. Kate swallowed a whimper. This was no time to show weakness, she had no idea if back up was coming or when it would arrive. She felt something trickle down the back of her neck, great; she had a head wound and probably a concussion. She needed to focus on getting out of here, or taking this guy down but her vision kept swimming. She ran through what she knew of the victims, there were no signs of sexual assault so that was a relief, but he was obviously strong, and she was in no condition to stop him from doing what he had done multiple times before, beating someone to death.

The pressure on her wrist increased, and she tried to let go of the gun, or to wriggle her arm out from under the shoe but it seemed that her arm was no longer obeying Kate's orders. She just hoped there was no nerve damage. No, there was definitely no nerve damage she thought as pain lanced up her arm, accompanied by a loud snap. Her vision blacked out entirely, and it started to sound like she was underwater, or had cotton in her ears. She was loosing consciousness, she couldn't afford to do that so she fought to stay awake and keep her breathing controlled. She could hear the faint sounds of voices and footsteps, and as hands closed over her throat again her last conscious thought was, that at least they would catch him red handed.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: It took me ages to get this chapter to feel right; even then I'm still not to sure about it. I don't think I've done Martha justice, but then people do make snap judgements about people that are, quite often, wrong, so that's kind of what happened here. I'm also not that sure about hospital procedure in America, so apologies for any mistakes in that area. I hope you enjoy and I'm hoping to get one more chapter done before I go internet less. Once again, if you have any ideas that would make my writing better, please tell me. I love criticism, as long as it's constructive and will help me improve.**

**Disclaimer: No. Despite popular belief, I do not own Castle.**

When Rick got home he immediately went into his study and turned his laptop on and began looking at the latest headlines on the NY Ledger page. He wanted to know more about thins mysterious Kate Beckett, and if she was a Detective, injured in the line of duty with a child, then surely, there would be something about it online. And right there, the first headline of the page the 'Breaking News' headline: 'NYPD Detective Seriously Injured in Suspect Takedown' Rick continued reading, he wanted to see if he could find where she was being treated so he could return her book.

'_NYPD Detective Kate Beckett was seriously injured after a suspect takedown went wrong. What was supposed to be a routine follow up on a witness statement almost turned deadly then the witness actually turned out to be what the NYPD is calling their prime suspect. Robert Harrison former Navy SEAL is looking good for 5 counts of murder and one of attempted murder. Detective Beckett's condition remains unknown, although witnesses say it looked very serious as she was wheeled away from the scene unconscious and taken to Lennox Hill hospital. More details will be published when more information is given.'_

Rick let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and looked up as Martha entered the room.

"Hello mother," He grinned. "What brings you into my study? You're not after my credit card again are you?" he reached protectively for wallet.

"No, dear. You seemed rather distracted on the way home today and I was wondering what was wrong," his mother replied, frowning.

"Well mother, I had just finished the book signing this afternoon and I saw a boy a couple of years younger than Alexis trying to get past the security guard to get a book signed an-"

"Where were his parents? Surely they didn't just let the boy run round the city. Anything could happen to a child," Martha interrupted, concerned.

"As I was saying mother, before I was so rudely interrupted," Martha rolled her eyes at her son's antics. "He wanted a book signed for his mother, who is a Detective, and I'm not actually sure why he was wandering around unaccompanied, I assume he ran away from whoever was looking after him, anyway, just before I sign the book for him, he gets a call from someone who tells him that his mom's in hospital, and then two minutes later a Detective pulls up and takes the kid away. I still have the book, and I think I should return it."

"Oh, that's horrible. Imagine that, knowing your mother could end up dead any day, dreading that phone call that will ruin your life forever. The poor child, how could you put yourself in that position, what is that woman thinking?" Martha ranted dramatically.

"Grams, you can't say that. I think she's amazing, being a Detective and looking after a child and you have no right to judge," Both the adults looked at Alexis in surprise as she frowned at Martha. "There's a kid in my class like that, he's really nice. His mom is a cop, and he is the sweetest person I know, he's really shy though, and quiet, I don't know him very well. Jack his name is, I think.

Rick looked up in surprise. "Jack? As in Jack Beckett?" At Alexis' nod he continued. "That's the kid that I met today, there is no way was he old enough to be in your class, and how does a Detective afford to send their kid to a private school?"

"He's only a year younger than me, he skipped a grade. He gat a scholarship I think, he's like, freaky smart. If his mom's in hospital, we have to go and see him. He's gonna need friends, and I don't know if he's made any yet, he only just skipped a grade this year. He's gonna need someone to take notes for him in class, and drop off homework and stuff, he won't want to came into school for a while," Martha and Rick looked on amused as Alexis began muttering to herself, and grabbed a bit of paper off Rick's desk to start writing a list of what she thought she should do.

"Sweetie, are you sure about this? I mean, you said you don't really know him, and it would have to be rather awkward for the kid, you just showing up at the hospital. And hey, he might not actually want his homework. Not everyone loves the extra work like you do," Rick said, although he knew that when his daughter set her mind to something there was no changing it. He sighed when Alexis levelled a glare in his direction. "Okay, but do you want to go _now_ we just got home," he whined.

"Dad, come on," Alexis turned on her heel and walked out of the study.

Martha turned to her son. "Are you sure she's not adopted? Or an alien?" Rick rolled his eyes and followed Alexis out of the study, grabbing his keys and wallet on the way out.

…

When Rick and Alexis arrived at Lennox Hill, Alexis took the lead. She walked up to the desk and smiled sweetly at the receptionist.

"Hi," she said brightly. "My friend Jack's mom was admitted to hospital earlier this afternoon and I was wondering if you knew where I could find Jack. His mom's name is Kate Beckett."

The receptionist looked at Alexis for a moment before replying. "Ms Beckett is still in surgery, her son is in the waiting room over there," she pointed in the direction of the waiting room. Alexis gave her another smile and headed off in the direction of the waiting room with Rick following, rather bemused.

Rick recognised Jack the moment they entered the waiting room. He was sitting in a plastic chair, looking lost and alone even though he was surrounded by people. Alexis walked over to him, and gave him a sympathetic smile.

"Hey, I'm Alexis and I'm in-"

"My class, yeah, I recognise you. What're you doing here? Do you know someone in hospital?" Jack interrupted, tilting his head sideways as he looked at Alexis, but seemed rather grateful for the distraction.

Alexis smiled softly. "Yeah, you," at Jack's puzzle expression she continued. "I heard that your mom was in hospital and thought you could probably do with some company. Also, I thought you might want someone to take notes for you and drop off any homework," Jack opened his mouth to speak when Alexis rushed on. "And I know you don't really know me, but I know if my dad was in hospital I would hate to be all alone and I'd want someone my own age to talk to so I thought you could use a friend. But I can go if you want me to," she finished looking rather unsure of herself.

"No, stay, please. You're right I could really do with a friend, and I'd really appreciate it if you could take notes. And if you could bring me my homework, I can't fall behind in class," As he was saying this, a surgeon came into the room and walked over to him.

"Jack Beckett, I'm your mom's surgeon, is your father here or any other family? I need to give an update, and it is standard procedure that I have to tell an adult family member. Is there anyone I can contact?"

Jack shook his head. "I don't know where my father is, and mom has no family other than her dad, and he's not available at the moment. It's just me, but please, tell me what's happening. Is my mom okay?"

"She's going to be fine, sore for a while and off work for a couple of months, or at least confined to desk duty. We had to do some reconstructive surgery on her right wrist because it was badly broken, her right shoulder was dislocated so we had to put it back in the socket and fix some tissue damage surrounding the shoulder. Your mom also had a nasty head wound that needed stitches and we think she has a reasonable concussion. She also has two cracked ribs and multiple bruised ones, they will be tender for a while and they'll need taping until they heal, and there is bruising around her throat and on her face, and probably on her arms and torso too, from the fight. I know it sounds scary, but she's going to be okay, all the injuries are rather minor, the only thing we have to keep an eye on is the concussion. If you have someone to stay with your mom can probably leave in a couple of days but if not she'll have to stay here for about a week so we can keep an eye on her. We are just moving her into her room now, and she should wake up from the anaesthetic within half an hour. If you'd like I can take you there now."

Jack was quiet for a minute, as the surgeon's words started to sink in. Then he turned to Alexis. "Would you come with me? I know you don't really know me, but I really don't want to go in there alone," when Alexis nodded he turned to the surgeon. "Please take me to see my mom."

Alexis caught Rick's eye and indicated for him to follow. Rick trailed after them at a discrete distance, the two pre-teens talking as they followed the surgeon. When the surgeon stopped Jack look up at him.

"Than you, sir," he said quietly before entering the room. Rick heard a small gap as Jack entered the room and saw his mother for the first time since the morning. Alexis followed Jack, and also gasped at what she saw. When Rick peered around the door, he could see why Alexis and Jack had reacted as they had. Detective Kate Beckett was lying in a hospital bed, unconscious, her right arm was in a brace and her wrist was in a cast. But that wasn't the worst part; half of her face and her entire neck were covered in developing bruises, Rick could actually see the hand prints on her neck. He glanced at his daughter and her new friend, and then smiled as he saw Alexis envelop Jack in a tight hug. Alexis then dragged two chairs over beside the bed. Rick remained in the doorway as Alexis and Jack sat down in the chairs. They talked to each other as they waited for Kate to wake up, occasionally stealing glances at the battered and bruised form of the sleeping Detective.

About twenty minutes after they entered the room, Kate began to stir. She twitched, and then moaned, and Rick could see the pain on her face. Her eyes fluttered open, or at least they tried to but one had swollen almost completely shut. Looking at her, Rick felt an overwhelming urge to find whoever had done this and beat them to death with is bare hands; how could anyone even _think_ of hitting a woman, especially one as beautiful as this woman. And she was beautiful, he thought, even with over half of the skin that was visible covered in bruises, she took his breath away. She looked wildly around the room, as if she couldn't quite place where she was, however when she saw her son, her body visible relaxed.

"Jack," Kate croaked quietly. So quietly in fact, that Rick had to strain his ears to hear it. Jack, who had been deep in conversation with Alexis, looked at his mother immediately, and when he noticed she was awake he grinned at her.

"Mom! You're awake. Let me just get a nurse," and at that he hit the call button above Kate's bed, then continued speaking. "This is my friend, Alexis; she's going to be taking notes for my classes and dropping my homework off while I'm off school." Kate frowned, when Jack mentioned time off school but before she could reply a nurse bustled past Rick and into the room and began looking at Kate's chart and checking vitals.

"How are you feeling sweetie?" The nurse asked Kate as she flipped through the chart making notes here and there.

"Like I've been hit by a truck," she croaked, grimacing as her throat objected. "What happened?" Her eyes started drifting closed as she finished talking and Jack looked at the nurse, worried.

"Why can't she remember what happened? Is it normal that she went to sleep again? What about her concussion?" Jack bombarded the nurse with questions.

"It's okay, and yes, it is normal that she went back to sleep, the anaesthetic hasn't quite worn off yet, so she'll probably be in and out of consciousness for a while, we are monitoring the concussion but it should be fine, although that may be why she can't remember what happened. When she's more lucid she may remember what happened better. I'll bring you some ice chips for next time she wakes up, they'll help sooth her throat and make speaking easier," the nurse turned to leave and raised her eyebrow when she saw Rick still standing in the doorway. Rick gave her his best charm smile and she just shook her head at him as she left. She re-entered the room a few moments later with a cup containing ice chips and left it on the table beside the bed, then left again. 

Rick felt like an intruder, standing in the doorway, staring in, but he didn't know what else to do, going in would be even more intrusive but he just couldn't bring himself to leave. Suddenly Alexis seemed to remember that her dad was there too because she turned to Jack and caught his attention.

"Jack, this is my dad, Rick, is it okay if he comes in too?" When Jack saw Rick, he paled.

"Wait, your dad is Richard Castle?" Then turning to Rick he continued. "Please sir, you can't tell my mom that I was at the book store this afternoon, I wasn't supposed to be there and she'll really freak out," he cast a glance at Kate to make sure she was still asleep. "And she already has enough to worry about."

Rick smiled at him. "It's okay, I won't tell her, but you kind of left the book behind when you left. Not that I blame you, you had _way _more important things on your mind at the time. Unfortunately… I think I left it at home," Rick frowned, somewhat disappointed in his forgetfulness. "Never mind, Alexis can drop it off with your homework at some point," He shrugged in response to a glare from Alexis at his last comment, then all three returned their gazes to Kate as she started to wake up again.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: So this is going to be the last chapter I can post for two weeks, but I will keep writing, so in two weeks I'll be updating heaps. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and/or added this story to their alerts/favourites, knowing that so many people are reading (and hopefully enjoying) this story really makes me so happy and makes me want to write faster. Everyone has been really supportive, and I'm feeling more confident in my writing, so thank you all. :D**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Castle, nor am I making any money from this. So don't sue me, I have no money.**

Kate struggled to wake up. Her mind felt foggy, she couldn't think straight. She tried to move, but her body felt sluggish and didn't want to obey her commands. As her mind threw off the fog a bit more, she began to wish she could remain unconscious. Everything ached, but that ache was nothing compared to the pain that was radiating from her right shoulder and wrist. She herd a groan and managed to get her eves open to look for the source of the noise but the bright lights forced her eyes closed again.

Kate thought back, trying to remember what happened. The last thing she could remember was… the witnesses. There was – something – what was it? That was it – an irregularity with the witness statements. But why did that end with pain? What had happened next? Her thoughts were invaded by a sharper pain from her head. Had she been drinking? But that wouldn't explain everything else, and she never got drunk not with Jack to worry about. Jack! Was he okay? Had something happened to him as well?

"Jack!" she forced her eyes open, squinting at the brightness of the light and grimaced at the rawness of her throat. What the hell had happened? As she looked around, trying to find her son she also catalogued her injuries, splitting headache, check, sore face and throat, check, swollen eye that wouldn't open, check. Her arm was immobilised; her right shoulder and wrist hurt although the shoulder was worse, and she had sore ribs. She also couldn't really move still, so she was searching for her son with one eye, not really taking in any other details.

"Mom, it's okay, you're in the hospital. I have some ice chips, they'll make your throat feel better," Kate met his eyes and relief flowed through her, Jack was safe, he was okay.

She lifted her left arm for the ice, it felt awkward and clumsy, and her ribs screamed in protest. She stifled a groan, she needed to remain strong for her son, it wasn't fair to him to see her in this much pain. Well actually, she thought, it wasn't fair for him to see her in any pain but getting injured was an occupational hazard, and thought they both knew it; it didn't make the thought of her son seeing her like this any easer.

Kate noticed a girl sitting next to her son; she was a maybe a couple of years older than Jack. The girl looked vaguely familiar, a name floated just out of reach. Kate then looked around properly, she was in a hospital room, and there was someone at the door.

She turned to Jack. "What painkillers am I on at the moment? Are any of them known to cause hallucinations?"

"I have no idea. Why?"

"Because how else would you explain the famous author standing around in the doorway?" Kate grimaced at both her bluntness and the roughness of her voice. It appeared whatever painkillers she was on; while they may not be hallucinogenic they sure removed the thought-to-speech filter in her brain.

A chuckle emanated from said famous author's direction. "Well, I'm Alexis' father," Alexis, that was it, she was Jack's friend and was going to be taking notes and bringing homework when Jack wasn't at school. Why wouldn't Jack be at school?

"Jack, what were you saying about being of school? What's wrong? Why won't you be at school?" She interrupted with thoughts of the author the last thing on her mind.

"Mom, you're in hospital, I'm gonna be here, with you," Jack said slowly, as if Kate was the child, and he was the parent.

"Oh, no you are not. I am," Kate paused. "Fine and you need to be at school. Besides, you'll be bored out of your mind here," Kate tried using her best detective glare, but the effect was marred by her swollen eye.

"I don't have anywhere to stay, so I'll be here anyway, and I won't be able to focus with you here, injured, so there isn't really any point in me going to school. Also, I have no way of getting there."

"What do you mean you'll be here anyway? I should be out of here in a couple of days, and it's the weekend now, so by Monday I should be home, therefore, you have no excuse not to go to school," Kate and Jack were so focused on their discussion that they both missed the grins exchanged between Alexis and Rick, when the nurse re-entered the room.

"Janet?" Kate raised an eyebrow at the nurse. "What're you doing here?"

"Well, it's nice to see you're finally lucid, and I'm looking after you, Kate, seeing as you don't really seem to want to do it yourself," She held Kate's gaze unflinchingly as Kate glared at her.

"No, why are here in New York? I thought you were in Colorado last time we talked."

"Yeah, I moved back here. Colorado got boring. Anyway, do you feel like you can handle more visitors? I think I have about half the 12th precinct out there asking how you are," At Kate's sceptical look she amended. "Okay, maybe not half, but your team is driving the receptionist to distraction asking for updates, you'd do us all a favour letting them in here. Oh, and you're not getting out of here for a week unless you have someone to watch over you at home, we need to monitor your concussion."

Kate sagged when given that last bit of information, but nodded anyway.

"Alright, I'll save your receptionist," Kate grinned somewhat lopsidedly as half of her face hurt too much to grin properly. "You can send everyone in, stop them worrying about me."

Janet nodded once, and then left to tell everyone that Kate could receive visitors. Kate watched her exit, then turned her gaze to Rick who was still hovering in the doorway. She rolled her eyes.

"You might as well come in; you don't really make a convenient doorway for people trying to get in and out," Rick grinned at that and entered the room. "I'm Kate, by the way, Jack's mom, although you probably figured that out already."

Kate couldn't believe it; she was talking to Richard _freaking _Castle. Her son was friends with Alexis Castle and she still had no idea how she had ended up in hospital.

Her thoughts were interrupted when more people started entering the room, Lanie rushed in first, followed by Ryan and Esposito who entered at a more reasonable pace.

"Girl, what the hell were you thinking, goin in there with no backup? Honestly Kate, you almost gave me a heart attack, when Javi told me…" Lanie shuddered, but Kate just frowned, puzzled. Where did she go without backup, and why? It wasn't like her to break procedure like that. Ryan must have caught her puzzled expression because he quietened Lanie down.

"What can you remember Beckett?"

"Um," she frowned. "Esposito called me, it was my day off, but another body had dropped. And, um," she sighed, her head was pounding. "There was something wrong with the witness statements. And then… No, I got nothing. What happened?" She shifted slightly and winced as pain lanced from her shoulder. "Wait, we were going to talk to one of the witnesses, his statement was way too familiar to some of the other ones from that case. What happened, did we manage to track him down?" Esposito and Ryan looked at Kate stunned. "Oh, I take it that _I _was the one to find him then, and we had a bit of a disagreement," she sighed. "No one ever wants to come quietly to the precinct these days."

"So can you remember what happened Beckett?" Esposito asked.

"No, I just remember I took the last address and we had uniforms looking at the rest of them. Did you manage to get the guy?" Kate clenched her teeth, her head was really starting to throb now, and she wondered when Janet was going to come back with some of her lovely painkillers. She could hear Esposito talking, but it felt like she was underwater and everything was getting further away from her. Her eyes started to close in voluntarily and she slipped back into sleep.

…

Rick watched, intrigued as Kate talked with her colleagues. The dynamic was fascinating; they obviously cared for her very much, and seemed to hold a great deal of respect for her, although despite that, it didn't stop them from telling her off. Or maybe it was because of it, and they knew they could get away with it.

Rick was listening to Kate going through the events that led to her ending up in hospital. The frustration was plain on her face as she struggled to remember and the horror plain on her three friends' faces as they remembered what Kate couldn't. He could see the moment that Kate lost the battle with sleep, her eyes slowly became unfocussed as the Detective that had picked Jack up started telling her about the suspect they had caught thanks to her. He studied her thoroughly as her face relaxed into sleep. He was beautiful, that much was apparent, even the bruises on her face could not mask her beauty, but she was somehow softer when she slept. It was almost as if when she was awake she was constantly on guard, something that wouldn't surprise him, she was a detective after all, she would know what the world could throw at people, but as soon as she went to sleep, her guard dropped, and she relaxed.

The detective had finally realised that Kate had gone to sleep, and trailed off, then shrugged. They all seemed to realise they weren't alone at the same time, nodding towards Jack and looking curiously at both Rick and Alexis.

"Hi, I'm Lanie Parish, M.E and Kate's best friend. The guys are Detectives Javier Esposito, and Kevin Ryan. Who are you and why are you in my girl's room?" Lanie's words were harsh, but the tone suggested that it was just how she talked and meant nothing by it.

"Rick Castle, and that is my daughter Alexis, she's Jack's friend," he replied nodding in Alexis' direction as he introduced her.

"Rick Castle, as in the author?" Lanie asked, disbelief written plainly on her features.

"On my good days," He grinned at her then pouted as he received a glare. What was it with these women and not falling for his charm smile? This was so not cool. The two Detectives flashed quick grins in his direction however, then turned to Jack.

"Well, this is getting kinda awkward. And crowded. We'll come by again tomorrow okay? We kinda need a statement from your mom if she ends up remembering anything else, although she'd know that anyway. We gotta go; we have a suspect to nail," Detective Ryan said flashing Jack a sympathetic smile. "Don't let her drive you nuts."

Jack gave a small smile at that, and the two Detectives and the M.E left again. Alexis turned to Jack. "You know, you could always stay with us. If you wanted to, I mean, we have heaps of space, and spare bedrooms, and my dad works from home, so your mom could leave the hospital earlier than she would be allowed to otherwise. And that way it'd be easier to go over what we've learnt while you're not there," Rick smiled, his daughter was offering his house out to people they'd known less than a day. He wasn't sure if Jack would say yes, and then they'd have to convince Detective Beckett, and that would be a mission he was sure. He hoped she would agree though, he was intrigued by the Detective and wanted to get to know her better.

Jack considered the offer seriously, then replied. "I think that'd be nice. Mom hates hospitals, and will do pretty much anything to get out early, but I'll still have to ask her. She might not want to stay with people she doesn't know, but she probably will if it means getting out of here early," He grinned suddenly. "And if we can get her to agree when she's still all drugged up, it'll be even easier!"

Rick chuckled, and wondered if Kate shared her son's devious streak, then decided to leave the kids to talk, while he grabbed a coffee. By the time he had retuned from his search of the elusive hospital coffee machine, Kate had woken up again and was talking to Alexis and Jack. He entered the room silently, as not to disturb the conversation.

"So, Alexis, how are you doing at school? Jack said you were in his class, are you enjoying it?" Kate's voice was still rough but it sounded much better than before.

"Yeah, I love it, it's great. Mrs Flynn is like the best teacher ever!" Alexis grinned, and Jack nodded his agreement.

"That's great. I'm glad Jack is making friends in his new class. I was worried that moving him up a year would be tough on him and I thought he might struggle making friends with older kids." The relief was clear in her voice and Rick was glad that the detective was not immune to his daughter's charm. Jack, on the other hand, turned red.

"Mom, I said I'd be fine. And I am, I have friends and I'm fine with the work. Stop worrying. Oh, and is it okay if I stay with Alexis and her dad while you're here. And, that means that you can get out of here faster if you want to stay there when they ask if you have anywhere to stay. Please say yes mom."

"I don't know Jack, and don't even _think_ of trying the puppy dog eyes on me. You know that doesn't work," she gave Jack a pointed look and turned to Alexis. "Is it okay with your dad? I wouldn't want to impose, you guys hardly know us."

"Why don't you ask him? Me and Jack are gonna to go to the café so you guys can talk," with that, Alexis grabbed Jacks arm and pulled him out of the room. Kate's head turned sharply towards Rick, she then winced as her bruises and shoulder protested against the sudden move.

"Hey," Rick said turning his smile on her. "How're you feeling?"

"Mr Castle?" Kate said abruptly.

"It's Rick, please," for someone who was – apparently – a huge fan of his, she didn't seem very amiable towards him, something he hoped to change. "It's fine with me if Jack stays at my house, he and Alexis seem to get on very well, and we do have plenty o space if you need somewhere to stay when you get released."

"I hardly know you, why would you want me around your house?" her brow furrowed in a way Rick found adorable.

"Well, to be honest, my reasons are somewhat selfish," Kate raised an eye rather warily. "You're a detective, I'm a mystery novelist, I'd love to pick your brains about some of your cases, and I'm sure you could help me with some ideas."

"I don't know. I'd hate to impose."

"Don't be ridiculous. It's fine, just think of it as being on holiday."

"In someone else's house? While they're still there?" Kate's eyebrow was slowly making its way up into her hairline again.

In a last ditch attempt to get her to agree Rick added; "Well, that way you can get Jack back to school faster," followed by a quick grin. Kate's right eye narrowed at him, the left was now swollen almost completely shut.

"I'll think about it. I still hardly know you so no promises, but I'm happy with Jack staying with you as long as he's okay with it," she shifted uncomfortably again, and Rick realised how long it must have been since she'd had painkillers.

"Did you want me to call the nurse to get you some more painkillers?" He queried, watching her face tense up as another wave of pain passed through her body.

"No," she said through gritted teeth. "It's okay. I'm fine."

Rick knew his scepticism was plain to see, but as Kate kept pointing out, he hardly knew her, so it wasn't really his place to make her take painkillers if she didn't want to take them. He just couldn't help it though, there was something about her, that made him want to know her better and protect her from people like the man who had put her in hospital. Which was ridiculous, she was a cop, she carried a gun, she didn't need protecting. She especially didn't need protecting by an author who had no weapons but words.

"So… What is the strangest case you've been on?"

"Mr Castle, I am a homicide detective, and cases are not something that I feel comfortable talking about, especially with strangers."

"Oh, come on Detective," Rick pouted. "There must be one really strange one, a time travelling killer maybe? Or a CIA agent killed for his information. Ninja assassins on a killing spree?" Kate rolled her eyes, but Rick could see she was also trying not to smile.

"Aren't all ninja's assassins anyway, so _ninja assassin_ is kinda void?" Rick opened his mouth to reply, and then shut it again.

"Touché Detective Beckett," he conceded.

Kate grinned at him, happy to have won the verbal spar, and when she did, Rick decided that he would do whatever he could to see that grin again, it was amazing and lit up the room. Unfortunately, the grin quickly faded as she shifted again, trying to get comfortable and relatively pain free.

"You know what? I'm going to call the nurse again, there is no point in you being in pain when you're in a hospital, surrounded by amazing painkillers," he reached for the call button and pressed it before Kate could protest.

The nurse entered almost immediately, followed not soon after by Jack and Alexis. The nurse fussed round for a while, berating Kate for going so long without painkillers, silencing her protests with a glare, and by telling her that if she wanted to leave any time soon, she'd behave herself. When the nurse had finished administering the pain killers she left, leaving the four of them alone again.

"So, mom, can I stay with Alexis while you're in the hospital?" Jack asked eagerly.

Kate shot a glance at Rick who nodded mutely. She turned back to Jack and sighed.

"Just make sure you behave, okay? You do what you're told and-" she was interrupted by a yawn. "I'll see you tomorrow. You should probably get going now, Alexis and her father will want to get home, and I'm just going to be sleeping. Remember, you are a guest, so be good." She yawned again, her eyes drifting shut. Then her eyes sprang open again, she beckoned Jack closer with her good arm and gave him a lopsided hug, whispering something that Rick couldn't hear in his ear. Jack grinned back and the three of them turned to leave.

"I'll see you tomorrow, mom. I hope you feel better soon," Jack said as he stopped in the doorway. Then, seeing her nod, then drop off to sleep, he followed Rick and Alexis out of the hospital.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Sorry this took me so long to get up, life got really busy. School is also going to be starting for me next week, so updated are going to be a bit slower but I'll update as fast as I can. Once again, I'd love it if anyone can point out ways to improve my writing or make it easier to read, I don't really mind flames either but constructive criticism is best IMO. I hope I kept everyone in character, but remember, drugs (legal, painkillers) make people do strange things, I speak from experience.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any recognisable characters or locations.**

Kate woke the next morning to the serious green eyes of her son staring back at her. She felt better, although she knew the bruising would be more pronounced then yesterday.

"Okay, now I know why you think me watching you sleep is creepy," she grinned at Jack. "How was your night? Did you behave?"

"Yes mom," Jack rolled his eyes and Kate raised an eyebrow in the direction of the door where Rick was once again hovering; he nodded silently as Jack continued. "And Alexis' house is awesome! They have so many books and heaps of movies. I played laser tag too, and it's gonna be so awesome when you're out of hospital cos Mr Castle has so much cool stuff that you'll just love, and you can read so many book cos you wont be at work for a while, and you can play games with me and Alexis."

Rick stood smirking in the doorway and Kate glared at him as she tried to convince her son that they may not actually be staying with the Castles long-term.

"Sweetie, I know that you enjoyed yourself last night, but I'm not sure if I will be staying with Mr Castle when I get out of here," Jack pouted at this. "That doesn't mean you can't spend time with Alexis, I just don't think it's right to impose on people we barely know-"

"Oh, it's hardly imposing my dear Detective," Rick butted in, earning a death glare from Kate. "In fact, if you remember, I offered my house to you, no strings attached. You'll have as much privacy as you want, you don't have to leave your room if you don't want to. Well, you will to go to the bathroom, but that's a bit beside the point. You need somewhere to stay with someone to make sure you don't hurt yourself further, and I'm offering my house. Think of it as my service to New York; I'm helping to get on of their finest detectives back on her feet."

He finished off with one of his famous charm smiles, but it just left Kate wondering why he seemed so desperate to have her stay with him. She shrugged it off as paranoia from being a detective and nodded slowly, then glanced at her son, who was grinning as he could see that she was slowly being won over.

"Okay, but we'll only stay as long as I have to, as soon as I'm cleared we're moving back into our apartment," she gave a stern look to her son, who nodded meekly. "And no funny business all right?" She looked at Rick as she added the last bit, thinking that a playboy like Richard Castle would try anything to sleep with a woman, even if she was on so many painkillers she didn't know which way was up.

Rick raised his hands. "No funny business, I swear. I thought that was kinda implied by my 'no strings' comment."

Kate ignored him and turned back to her son. "What are you planning on doing today? You can't really hang around here, they are going to do some more tests to make sure everything is okay, then I should be cleared to leave tomorrow if everything is okay," at Jack's raised eyebrow she continued. "I told them I'd be staying with someone that could keep an eye on me, so if it all checks out I can leave at some point tomorrow. Hopefully."

"You'd already decided that you were going to stay with Mr Castle and Alexis! That's not fair; you can't be mean like that."

"Of course I can, I'm your mother, that's what I do," Kate shrugged lopsidedly, suppressing a wince as it irritated her shoulder. "Anyway, did you have any plans for today?"

Jack held up a pack of playing cards. "I didn't want you to be bored, so I figured we could play some games, I also brought you some books to read, if you wanted to. I'm not going anywhere though, unless it's the hospital cafeteria," he added looking hopefully at his mother. Kate laughed and nodded to the table beside her bed.

"My wallet is in my bag if you want to buy a drink or food, but it is hospital food, so it probably won't be that great. And don't spend too much either."

Jack nodded as he sped out of the room, wallet in hand. Kate rolled her eyes and shook her head at her son's antics, not that she could blame him, it was just amusing to see how exciting everything was to him.

"He's probably gone to find Alexis; they'll be plotting what mischief they can come up with tonight."

Kate jumped slightly, she had forgotten it wasn't just her in the room then glared at Rick for giving her a fright. Her gaze softened as she remembered that she would effectively be living with him for a while, she figured she might as well get on his good side before she had to take the strong painkillers that would most likely leave her somewhat loopy.

"Thank you for looking after Jack, he really seemed to enjoy it. And thanks for offering to let me stay with you while I recover, although I'm still not sure why you are offering." She then cursed the lack of a filter between her head and her mouth.

Rick chucked slightly, he could see the horror of the last comment plainly written on her face, people were easy to read, especially when their reflexes were dulled by painkillers.

"Well, to be honest, my motives were somewhat selfish. You are a detective, and I write crime novels, although I'm sure you already knew that," Kate blushed slightly at that comment and once again cursed her somewhat drugged state. "So I was kind of hoping, seeing as you are out of action for a while, tat you'd be able to go over procedures and the like, maybe help by pointing out things that I have wrong." 

Kate couldn't believe it, Richard Castle, _the_ Richard Castle, was asking her if she could look over his work and maybe point out mistakes. She would probably never tell him that all of the books that she owned of his had notes stuck in them as she figured out the plot faster than the characters, and pointing out all the procedural errors he had made. She had gone through every book thoroughly the first time she read them, competing with fictional characters as to who was the better detective. It was fun, a great escape from reality, but it really irritated her when the details were wrong, as a real detective, she knew the importance of details and paid attention to even the smallest detail, so when there were things wrong, it threw her off. She realised that she had been silent for a while, rather spaced out and lost in her thoughts when her reverie was broken by Rick's now unsure voice.

"I mean, you don't have to if you don't want, I just thought-"

"What? Oh, no it's fine, I'm happy to help if I feel up to it. Sorry, I just zoned out for a while, probably all the drugs they have me on," She smiled weakly at Rick, trying to gloss over her moments inattention as a nurse entered the room.

"Sorry for interrupting, but we need to take you for an MRI now Miss Beckett, can you please make sure you are not wearing anything metallic or magnetic, we don't want anything stuck in the MRI, it's awfully hard to get things out once they get stuck in it."

Kate made sure her earrings were out and then, using one arm got herself into the wheelchair provided by the nurse. Rick leaned in as if to help, but one glare from Kate was enough to stop that thought dead in its tracks.

The MRI was long, and noisy, and Kate was sick of it in the first 10 minutes. All the clunking and beeping got on her nerves, and she just wanted to be out of there, she thought that maybe she had developed some form of claustrophobia before she realised it was probably just a flow on effect of her dislike of hospitals. Eventually, Kate just zoned out and tried to remember the events leading up to her stay in hospital, but only succeeded in giving herself a headache.

When she was wheeled back to her room, she found Rick, Alexis and Jack sitting around the bed playing what looked to be a very intense game of 'Snap!' She hated to interrupt, they all looked like they were having fun, but it was her bed they had taken over, so it was only fair she interrupt the game.

"Okay guys, clear the bed. Then we can set up something better than 'Snap!'"

"Okay," Rick groused as they removed the cards from the bed. "But no poker, Alexis is far too young to learn poker."

"You're just saying that because you're scared she'll kick your butt," Kate teased.

"Well, maybe, but she's still too young to be playing poker," Rick pouted at Kate and she laughed back at him, enjoying the fact that she could relax more around Rick and Alexis, as she awkwardly got back into bed.

"I promise I won't teach Alexis poker. However, I can't promise that Jack won't."

"You taught your so how to play poker? He's only eleven!" Kate laughed at the shock on Rick's face.

I didn't Ryan and Esposito decided to teach him one poker night, he's really good, aren't you squirt?" She nudged Jack with her elbow and he nodded eagerly.

"Don't worry Alexis, I can teach you how to play, and we can get really rich!" Jack grinned at Alexis who smiled back.

"Okay, but not now," Rick whined. "I want to play something else."

"What are you, nine? Besides, we can't play poker, we have no chips. I would suggest 'Spoons' but it gets a bit violent, and we have no spoons, so how about 'Scum' do you know how to play?"

To Kate's disappointment both Rick and Alexis shook their heads. She shot a _look_ at her son who was laughing at the prospect of Kate having to teach them a new game and then sighed.

"Okay, the point of the game is to get rid of all your cards first, and the last person left with cards at the end is 'Scum'. 3s are the lowest card and 2s are the highest, I don't know why, so just go with it. And nothing beats a Joker," Jack started dealing the cards. "All the cards are dealt out, and the person with the 3 of spades starts, you can do singles, pairs, threes or fours and then the turn moves clockwise and the next person puts down a higher card, it goes around until no one can beat the last card put down, then the winner of that trick gets to start the next one. I goes until someone has no cards left, they are the 'President' and then you keep playing until only one person had cards left and they are the 'Scum'. Then at the beginning of the next game, when the cards are dealt, the 'Scum' gives the 'President' their best card and then gets the 'President's' worst card. Make sense?"

Rick and Alexis nodded. "We'll pick it up as we play too, so we should just start," Alexis said eagerly, settling on a chair beside Jack.

Half an hour later, Kate had realised the flaw in playing cards; she could only use one arm, and, as the painkillers were beginning to wear off she was getting frustrated and angry. Rick noticed, and ushered the children out of the room with the promise of lunch.

"Are you okay Detective?" He turned to her; the concern was evident in his voice.

"Fine," she ground out through clenched teeth, shifting uncomfortably. She wished he would leave so she could call for a nurse. As much as she hated taking painkillers, the pain was still too much to be able to manage without them.

"You don't seem fine to me, do you want me to call a nurse?" His eyes were wide and innocent, but Kate just wanted to hit him, or yell at him.

"I said I'm fine and I am, you should get some lunch, you must be hungry," she verbally pushed him out of the room, and he went. Slowly, with much looking back, he was finally gone.

Kate sighed heavily, she felt like a real bitch but she also hated people seeing her weak. She slumped back in her bed, a tear making its way down her face uninvited, and reached for the call button. A nurse entered with glorious painkillers, and Kate slowly fell back into a welcome painless, dreamless sleep.

…

Rick returned to Kate's room to see her sleeping. He stood there for a while, studying her; there was the stain of a tear track trailing down her face and he figured that was why he had been – rather rudely – asked to leave, she didn't want anyone to see her as anything but a strong detective, and to some people, a loving mother.

He couldn't wait till tomorrow, when she would be released from hospital, he would give her as much privacy as she wanted, and he was under no illusions that she would probably be a very difficult patient at times, but she intrigued him and he wanted to know as much about her as he could. He thought that he may even base his next character after her, Derrick Storm was getting boring and Rick was planning on killing him off in the next book.

Kate didn't move once as he stared at her and he thought that he could just watch her sleep forever, as creepy and stalkerish as that sounded. Then Jack and Alexis trailed into the room, breaking Rick out of his little daydream.

"I think we should probably head home soon, visiting hours are almost over, and I think your mom is probably going to be asleep until tomorrow or until they have to do some more checks," Rick said gently as Jacks face fell.

"Yeah, okay. Can I say goodbye?"

Rick nodded and he and Alexis left the room to give tem some privacy. Rick felt bad taking Jack away from Kate, but there wasn't much that he could be doing here, and Rick thought that if Jack was involved in helping make the apartment ready for Kate's arrival tomorrow he would feel better.

When the three of them got back to Rick's apartment he fixed them a snack and then they got started on making the apartment 'Beckett friendly' for when she arrived. It eventually turned into an epic laser tag battle for the freedom of the universe, then a pizza making competition for dinner.

Jack and Alexis had gone to bed and Rick was doing a final check to make sure that everything was easily accessible for Beckett only using one arm and that he had nothing embarrassing lying around in his downstairs bedroom when Martha walked into his study.

"What on earth are you doing Richard?"

Rick's head shot up. "Tiding up, what does it look like?" 

"Why on earth are you tidying up? What's going on Richard?"

"Well Mother, I have a friend who is going to be staying here for a while as she recuperates, she's just had surgery and has to have someone keeping an eye on her and making sure she takes her medication. I offered my apartment because she had nowhere else to stay."

"Okay, I can understand that, but why are you clearing out _your_ room, why not let her have one of the guest rooms upstairs?" 

"This way she doesn't have to worry about stairs and everything is closer, she only has one arm at the moment because her wrist is in a cast and her shoulder is immobilised because it was dislocated," He gave his mother a searching look. "Actually Mother, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind staying here tomorrow to help Detective Beckett settle in, she might feel more comfortable knowing there's another woman around if she needs help with anything. I think she'll need help taping some ribs too and I doubt she'd want me helping, and Alexis and her son are a bit young to do it right really."

"She has a son too?" Martha raised an eyebrow. "Oh, this is the Detective you were talking about yesterday. You hardly know her! Why did you offer to take her in?"

"Mother!" Rick admonished. "Don't be like that, she needed somewhere to stay, and I have room. It made sense to offer her a place to stay. And I expect you to be polite, you shouldn't judge people, from what I've seen she is an amazing mother and a good detective, she just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Okay, I'll keep an open mind, where is her son at the moment anyway?"

Rick pointed upwards. "Sleeping in one of the guest rooms, but I'll probably put a spare mattress in Alexis' room tomorrow so I can have a bed too," he shrugged. "Either that or I'll just sleep on the couch."

"Alright, I'll stay in tomorrow. What time will she be released?"

"I have no idea, but Jack will want to be in there as soon as he can be, and I need to drop Alexis off at school so you'll have the house to yourself for a while," he yawned loudly. "And I think I'll go to bed now. Goodnight Mother, I'll see you tomorrow at some point."

"Goodnight kiddo," was Martha's reply as she turned to leave and Rick headed to bed for a final night of peace before a new adventure began tomorrow.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Yay for long weekends! However I start school again tomorrow, my last year at high school, that's scary. Anyway, that means that I won't be able to spend all of my time writing, so it may take a while for updates from now on. Hopefully the story will start to pick up its pace now, we are moving forward. (And out of the hospital) Enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine, and I have no money, so it's unlikely to ever be mine, pity.**

_The Next Day:_

Kate waited impatiently for the nurse to arrive so she could do her final tests and checks before the surgeon would come and give his instructions to Rick, who still wasn't there. She sighed heavily, and fiddled with the sheets, toying with a corner until a thread came loose, then she started pulling the thread when she was interrupted by a rather breathless Rick and Jack.

"Well, I just have to say that you're lucky no one came with a better offer Mr Castle, or you may have found the bed empty when you finally decided so show up," Kate said in mock seriousness, he harshness of the words softened by a smile.

"Sorry we're late mom, we had to drop Alexis off at school, and the traffic was really, really bad," Jack answered for both of them.

"And you're not at school because?"

"Because I wanted to make sure you were okay at Mr Castle's apartment and that you didn't need any help with getting anything from home."

"Okay, I'll let you off this time, but I want you back at school tomorrow, okay?"

Jack nodded sullenly and Kate was about to say something when a nurse walked in, and she only just managed to resist the urge to yell 'finally' as the nurse started her tests. She was antsy and annoyed, which didn't really help make the tests go any faster, and by the time the nurse was done poking and prodding her, the tension in the air was palpable.

"You okay Kate?" Rick asked as she continued to fidget and shift impatiently.

"Yeah," she sighed. "I just really want to get out of here, I'm sick of not being able to do anything. And I'm sick of being on so many different painkillers that I'm out of it most of the time."

"So, you're pretty much sick of being injured?" Rick deduced.

"Yeah, I think I pretty much just said that, Castle," Kate snapped at him.

She didn't bother apologising for her harsh tone, even though she had been sleeping lots in the past few days most of it had been drug induced slumber and hadn't left her feeling rested at all, it had just succeeded in making her feel tired and cranky so her patience with people, namely somewhat annoying writers that she barely knew, was very short. However, at a rather sharp look from her son, that reminded her of how she would sometimes look in the interrogation room, she did send a somewhat apologetic look in Rick's direction which he returned with a small, understanding smile.

"I know what it's like to be in hospital and just want to be out. Not for anything as bad as this, but I have ended up in a hospital bed many times," he tried to get a smile from Kate but would be happy to just distract her for a while. "Admittedly, most of the time's I've ended up in hospital have been entirely my fault, once when Alexis was younger, I wanted to make the best Thanksgiving ever, and I tried to deep fry a turkey, that was a disaster, I'm never doing anything like that again. It took ages for my eyebrows to grow back after that one," He was glad to see that Kate looked slightly more relaxed and Jack was grinning at his tale. "There was also this time when I had been taped to a chair and was trying to figure out a way to get out of it, I fell on top of a glass table and gave myself a concussion and got shards of glass stuck all in my arm, so I was in hospital for a bit after that."

"Why were you taped to a chair in the first place?" Jack interrupted.

"Well, you see I like to try and test out the ideas I have for my books, it makes them more believable if I know it's actually possible, and it lets me see the sort of thing that could be going through my characters minds," he tried to defend himself.

Kate snorted and shook her head. "It's not working Castle, you're just a big kid really, don't try and pass it off as anything else."

"It's true though," he protested. "It's research."

"You do realise you sound like a five year old right now?"

Rick simply stuck his tongue out at her in reply and received a raised eyebrow back.

"I think you've just proven my point."

Their sparring match was interrupted as Kate's surgeon made his appearance.

"I'm sorry it took me so long to get here, there were some complications with another patient, but I'm here now, so let's get on with it shall we?" He clapped his hands together then reached for some documents. He looked at Rick and Jack before handing some of the documents to Rick. "Those are prescriptions, you can get them filled before you leave here, some of them are painkillers and others are antibiotics just to make sure nothing gets infected.

"Now, the shoulder and head are probably going to be the worst, pain wise to begin with and the wrist may get uncomfortable from time to time. I know you've had cracked ribs before, so you know how they can be, you'll need them taped, probably for a couple of weeks, but you'll know when they've healed enough to stop taping them. You're going to want to keep your shoulder supported, either by wearing that brace or a sling, but you will probably only want the brace on when you sleep because it'll restrict your movement too much otherwise. You can move your shoulder, but don't try and push through the pain or you'll end up doing more damage to the tissue. The stitches can come out in a week and I'll want to see how your shoulder and ribs are doing then too. The cast can come off in a month and you should start seeing a physiotherapist then to do some rehabilitation work on the shoulder and wrist," at Rick, Jack and Kate's stunned and rather overwhelmed expressions he chuckled. "It's all down here on the bottom sheet that Mr. Castle has. You just need to sign your release forms and then you are free to go Detective Beckett, and I hope you stay out of trouble for a while, I don't want to see you on my operating table any time soon. And we can discuss when you'll be allowed back at work when I see you next week, it'll all depend on how you're healing, so I suggest lots of rest and no pushing yourself too hard or trying to sneak back into the precinct, okay?"

Kate nodded, and although she looked disappointed at that information, she mostly just looked glad at the prospect of being able to leave. As Jack was helping her pack up all her gear and get into the wheelchair, Rick excused himself to get the scripts filled. Kate almost told him not to bother with the painkillers because she wouldn't take them, but didn't think he'd listen anyway.

She was glad to have some time to spend with her son alone, she felt rather guilty about ending up in hospital, and wanted to make sure Jack was okay.

"I'm sorry, Jack, I have no idea why I didn't have backup with me when I went to go and talk to that guy."

"It's okay mom, it's not your fault, you had no idea that he would just come at you like that, anyway, we both know it's one of the risks of you being a cop, that you could be hurt. I don't really like it, but it's your job, and you could just as easily get hurt doing something else anyway."

"Like trying to put a volcano in an oven," Kate quipped, trying to lighten the mood, while wondering just how her son had become so wise for his eleven years of life.

"Exactly," Jack grinned, glad his mom wasn't worrying about him anymore.

They met up with Castle at the receptionist's desk where he was waiting with a bag full of various different pills and papers as well as the release forms that both he and Kate had to sign. As soon as the paperwork was complete, Rick gestured to the door.

"Shall we depart my lady?" His attitude not dampened by the strange looks he received form both Kate and Jack.

Rick had arranged for a town car to be there to pick them up.

"I figured it'd be easier than trying to get a taxi, and more comfortable. Do we need to stop at your place to get some gear?" Kate shook her head.

"No, it's all right; I asked Lanie if she could pack a bag of stuff for me and one for Jack, she can drop them off at your place as soon as I tell her where it is."

Rick rattled off his address and she sent it to Lanie so she could get her clothing and other essentials as soon as she had finished work. Kate then sighed, and gingerly leant back against the seat, testing her shoulder and relaxing more when it seemed okay. She closed her eyes and was almost asleep again when the car stopped. They had reached Rick's apartment.

…

Rick was nervous as they drew neared to his apartment building, he wanted Kate to feel comfortable, but it was hard, having only met her two days ago, to know how she would feel in is apartment. He hoped his mother had taken his advice and would not judge Kate until she actually got to know her, he knew it wasn't really like Martha to pass judgement on people like that, but everyone formed split second opinions of people, and for some reason he really wanted Kate and his mother to get along well. He supposed it could have something to do with the fact that he wanted Kate to be comfortable enough around his mother to let her help her do things, like tape her ribs.

He glanced at Jack, who seemed to have read his mind, because he shot Rick a reassuring smile before turning to watch the buildings and traffic crawl past. Rick was almost thankful that this was New York, and there was always traffic, it gave him time to mentally prepare for having two guests in his apartment for God knows how long.

As they pulled up to his apartment building, Rick realised that Kate had been almost asleep, and he was extremely glad that the trip hadn't taken any longer because he would have hated to have to wake the detective up just as she had gotten to sleep.

Rick picked up Kate's bag as Jack helped her out of the car; she tried to insist on carrying her gear, but Rick stubbornly, and yes, childishly, used his height to his advantage and kept it out of her reach. She was still very tired from the anaesthetic, the surgery and all the painkillers and Rick could see she was fading fast, so both he and Jack helped her into the building despite her protests that she didn't need any help. He nodded hello to the doorman then guided Kate and Jack to the elevator, where Kate slumped gingerly against the back of the elevator. Jack looked very concerned and Rick tried to ease his mind.

"Your mom's just tired, that's all, her body is healing and it takes a lot of energy. She'll be fine; she's just probably going to be sleeping a lot for the next couple of days."

Jack nodded. "I know, but I'm still allowed to be worried right?"

"Of course you can be, it's normal to be worried you love your mom and want her to be fine. And she will be, you jus have to remember that it will take time." Rick decided that he obviously had way too much spare time on his hands, and needed to cut down on how many crappy daytime T.V shows he watched.

Entering his apartment he wasn't surprised to see Martha sitting on the couch, what he was surprised at, was the lack of an alcoholic beverage in her and, or anywhere near her for that matter. He put that thought out of his mind as he introduced everyone.

"Mother, this is Detective Kate Beckett, and her son Jack, Detective, Jack, this is my mother, Martha Rodgers."

"Well, don't just stand there Richard," Martha scolded her son. "Let Detective Beckett sit down, she looks exhausted." And with that she waved Kate over to the couch and helped her get settled comfortably.

"Please, I'm going to be staying here for a while and Detective Beckett is too formal, just call me Kate," she smiled tiredly and sank further down into the sofa and closed her eyes contentedly.

Rick shuffled on the spot somewhat awkwardly. "I'll just put your bags in your room then, and show Jack where it is. I won't move you now Kate, I can show you where it is later. Kate waved him off and together Rick and Jack headed to where Kate would be sleeping.

"Wow! Nice room," Jack's jaw dropped as they entered the room, and Rick had to agree; his room cleaned up nice. He never really got to see it tidy, as more often than not the floor was covered in clothes and he would just fall asleep at his desk when he ran out of ideas to write.

Rick dumped Kate's gear on the bed figuring that Kate would want to sort it out later when Lanie had dropped off the rest of her gear. They then returned to the living room where Kate and Martha were watching T.V and chatting quietly, Rick smiled; glad the two seemed to be getting along well, before heading to the kitchen to check what time Kate would next need her meds.

A few hours later, just as Rick was about to start making lunch the doorbell rang. It was Lanie, dropping off Kate and Jack's clothes.

"Hello Mr Castle, thank you for looking after my girl," Lanie said as she pushed passed him into his hallway. "But, just a warning; you hurt her, and I know how to kill you and make it look like an accident. And I have contacts in the police force."

Rick gulped. "Please, call me Rick, and I assure you that I have absolutely no intention of hurting Kate, she's my guest."

"Good. Now I can't really stay long, I have a body waiting for me in the morgue, but I figured Kate would probably want her clothes as soon as humanly possible, so I actually took a lunch break today," Rick showed her into the living room where Kate was dozing and Martha and Jack were playing a card game that looked suspiciously like poker.

"Lanie!" Jack dropped his cards and rushed to give her a hug, Martha caught here son's eye, shrugged and began to pack up the game.

"Hey, Jack. How are you doin?" Lanie asked, smiling at his excitement.

"I'm good. Mom's making me go to school tomorrow though."

"Yes, I am. And don't go complaining to Lanie about it, she can't do anything about it," Kate interjected groggily, struggling to wake up.

Lanie chucked. "That's my girl. How're you holding up Kate?"

"Meh, can't complain," she shrugged her good shoulder. "I don't hurt too much at the moment, and this couch is really comfortable. Did you bring my stuff? I really want to get out of this gear," she pointed to the scrubs she was wearing in lieu of a top.

Lanie wiggled a bag in front of her face. "Did you want help getting into something a bit more comfortable?" At Kate's nod she glanced at Rick for direction to Kate's room but Jack got there first and showed the two women where Kate would be staying.

As Kate was getting changed, Rick and Jack started on lunch, nothing fancy, just D.I.Y bread rolls because he wasn't sure what Jack and Kate would want in their rolls. He also got enough out for Lanie if she wanted to stay, however when Kate and Lanie entered the kitchen, Lanie excused herself citing the need to do an autopsy.

Before she left, Lanie gave Rick one last piece of advice. "Look, Kate is stubborn and will try to stop taking the painkillers long before she probably should, just make sure you try and keep her taking the painkillers for as long as possible, there's no point in her being in pain if she doesn't have to be."

By the time Alexis got home, Rick had joined Martha and Jack in playing card game, and they had Spiderman going in the background. Kate was the only one that was actually paying attention to anything else going on around the house so she was the first one to notice that Alexis was home. That was, until Alexis snuck up behind Rick and tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to let out a small shriek that had everyone else in stitches. Rick, in retaliation, then challenged Alexis and Jack to a laser tag battle to try and regain some of his dignity. A plan that ultimately failed, as Alexis and Jack beat him easily every single time before turning on each other.

Dinner was just salad and lasagne, something Kate could easily eat one handed. The five of them sat around the table and Alexis told them all what she had done in school today, and promised to give Jack her notes to copy down. Rick placed Kate's meds in front of her and she took them with no complaint. He thought that maybe Lanie had been exaggerating Kate's potential difficultness as a patient, as she seemed willing enough to take the meds he put in front of her.

Kate retired to bed soon after diner and Alexis and Jack got to work on their homework, leaving Rick and Martha up to their own devices. Rick poured two glasses of wine, and handed one to his mother before they sat on the couch.

"I'm sorry for my harsh judgment of Kate earlier, I just know how hard it is to be a working mother, and I couldn't imagine how someone could put their life at risk when they have someone who depends on them at home," Martha apologised to her son, taking a sip of wine.

"It's alright Mother. I'm glad you've warmed up to her."

"Yes, she's a lovely young woman, we were having some interesting conversations today, I must say, I'm glad she's staying here now, I'd like to get to know her better.

"You and me both Mother," Rick replied.

They both slipped into a comfortable silence as Rick thought about how nice it was to have Jack and Kate in his apartment. He decided that he wanted to get to know Kate better outside of friendship too, but that could wait until after she was better, it was a it soon to be thinking about things like that at the moment, and he had promised Kate that he wouldn't try anything while she stayed with him. As soon as she was better however, all bets would be off. Suddenly, Rick couldn't wait for Kate to get better.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favourited and/or added this story in the past few chapters, even if the number of people reviewing have been going down each chapter. I'm really happy so many people are reading this though, so thank you to everyone who is taking the time to read this, because even that means a big deal to me, I was worried that no one would read it. Ah the joys of being a first time fanfiction writer. The maths in this chapter in regards to everyone's ages works assuming the story is set in 2012, Kate was still born in 1979 and had Jack in 2001 and Rick was still born in 1969 and had Alexis in 2000, so he had her when he was a bit older just to keep her at the age I have her in my story. I have no idea how old you have to be to apply to the police academy in America, but suspend your disbelief please. Otherwise, it works. I think. Please tell me what you think of it, I'm rather insecure about my writing, bbut even just having people read it makes me do little happy dances every now and then. And now this absurdly long A/N will come to an end. Cookies for anyone who actually reads all 227 words of it.**

**Disclaimer: I can't be bothered writing this every chapter so I decided to buy Castle. Wait. No I didn't I have no money. It's not mine. :(**

The next few days passed without incident and the five of them ended up with a routine; Alexis and Jack went to school, Martha occasionally left to do auditions but would spend most of the time talking to Kate, Kate would spend a lot of time sleeping or sitting on the couch talking to Martha, and Rick would made sure neither of the women needed anything, then he would retreat to his study to write just enough to keep Gina off his back for a while longer.

After a while, however, Kate got tired of not being able to do much and started browsing Rick's bookshelves to try and find something interesting to keep her occupied not she was sleeping less. She was getting bored and was sick of her inability to do much with her right hand as well as the aches caused by her cracked ribs. She'd also found as she started to decrease the strength of the painkillers she had been taking and the lack of anaesthetic, that she had begun to have nightmares about a faceless man attacking her. It was frustrating her not being able to remember exactly the events that had occurred on Saturday.

On Friday afternoon, when Kate had just finished 'A Rose for Everafter' for about the fifth time, Martha sat down next to her and gave her a warm smile before speaking; "You know, when Rick first mentioned you I judged you quite harshly. I wondered how a mother could go out every day, leaving her child at home or at school, knowing she may not return home that evening, speaking as a single mother myself, I just don't understand it," Kate opened her mouth to speak but was halted by Martha's raised hand. "Now that I've met you my opinion of you has definitely changed, you love your son, anyone can see that, and judging by the hell of a fight you must have put up you will do everything in your power to make sure you return to him at the end of the day. I still don't understand though, why do you do such a dangerous job? There must have been plenty of other paths you could have chosen and you must have either been pregnant or have had Jack by the time you decided to become a cop. I don't mean to be nosy, and you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, I was just wondering why become a cop?"

Kate blinked, processing Martha's small speech before giving her a sad smile. "I had Jack when I was 21, and by then I was a cop, I couldn't really see any other option at that point and everyone was really supportive off me so I stayed. What's the reason I became a cop? Well, I don't tell many people this; when I was 19 my mom was killed, murdered, and they never found her killer, the detective in charge just attributed it to gang violence, boxed it up nicely and then forgot about it, leaving it unsolved. I decided that I was going to become a detective to make sure that it would never happen to other people, that someone would keep pushing until there were answers, so I signed up to the police academy as soon as I could.

"I'd just graduated when I found out I was pregnant, and Captain Montgomery was really supportive, so was everyone else. I didn't want to give up the one chance I had of actually finding out what happened to my mother, but after Jack was born my priorities changed somewhat. I worked as hard as I could to climb the ranks quickly. I ended up working in vice for a while as a fast track to detective, I'd get my dad to look after Jack if I had to do all-nighters or stake outs.

"When I got to Detective, life got a bit easier; I actually got to keep most of my days off and could cut out early if I only had paperwork to do. Everyone at the twelfth precinct is a huge family, and they were more than happy to include Jack in that. Lots of the detectives and uniforms I work with have kids, granted, most of them are married so it does make life a little easier but they were more than happy to give me advice as well as second hand gear that I needed when Jack was younger. It was difficult paying for everything on a cop's salary," she smiled. "But it was worth it; now Jack has an entire precinct of cops watching out for him."

Martha nodded. "And Jack's father?"

"He's not around anymore, he probably doesn't even know he exists," Kate said abruptly, and Martha knew she had pushed too far as Kate's eyes turned cold.

Kate picked at a loose thread in her pants and rolled her shoulder in the sling, testing its strength as an awkward silence descended. She really hated it when conversation turned to Jack's father, but it was inevitable, every time they met someone new they'd want to know the story; bad divorce, tragic love story, one night stand. They always wanted to know all the sordid details; details Kate never wanted to have to dredge up again.

A knock at the door provided a welcome escape from the awkwardness. Martha went to get the door and when she returned Kate could see Ryan and Esposito behind her.

"Hey guys, what're you doin here?" Kate grinned at her friends.

"Well we did come to see you earlier on in the week but you were asleep and we didn't want to wake you. We just thought we should update you on what's happening at the precinct," Ryan said returning her smile.

"So it turns out, our boy Harrison was mad that his girlfriend dumped him last month and decided that the world would be better off without successful blond women," Esposito said tossing the case file on the seat next to Kate.

"Do you have a new case yet?" She asked as she flipped through the case file.

"Nah, just catching up on paperwork, most of it is yours by the way. How come you have so much paperwork to complete?"

"I'm just lucky I guess. So Harrison didn't confess then?" She asked having finished reading the report.

"Nope, I guess he figured that even though we'd caught him trying to kill you that we wouldn't have enough to charge him or something. He just stayed silent in the interrogation room but we managed to track down his ex-girlfriend and she told us he was violent and abusive, and when she managed to escape he threatened to kill her and every other 'uptight bitch in this city' and we managed to get a DNA from him and it matched that left as some of the crime scenes, and the witness statements were enough to tie him to the other crimes. We pretty much have an airtight case against him, so he should get life when it goes to trial," Ryan filled Kate in on all the details she had missed.

"Thanks guys, I really appreciate you coming over and keeping me in the loop. It's awful not being able to see this case all the way through," she was interrupted by both Ryan and Esposito's phones going off.

"Looks like we just got a new case," Ryan raised his eyebrows. "Tell Jack we say hi, we'll let you know what's going on when we find out more details." They waved and Martha let them out.

Rick then entered the Kitchen from his study and brought Kate's antibiotics and painkillers to her along with a glass of water. She took the antibiotics without protest but didn't reach for the painkiller.

"Kate, you need to take the painkillers too," Rick tried to convince her.

"I'm fine, I don't need them," she shook her head at him, not wanting to take them as she hated the way they made her feel sluggish and dulled her reflexes.

"Does your shoulder and ribs still hurt?" He took her stubborn silence as a yes and thrust the meds in her direction. "Then take them, there's no point in you being in pain if you don't have to be."

"It doesn't hurt that much Castle. Like I said, I'm fine. I'm tired, so I'm gonna go and lie down for a while. Can you please let me know when Jack gets home," and with that Kate retreated to her room.

She sighed and began to undress; slipping off her track pants and the button-up shirt she had been wearing. She glanced at the oversized shirt she had been using as nightgown but figured that she wasn't planning on going to sleep, and couldn't be bothered trying to get it on and done up and she didn't really want to call on Martha to help her, so she just slipped under the covers in her underwear. About half an hour later, much to her disappointment, her eyes started slipping closed without her permission and soon enough she had fallen asleep.

**...**

Rick stared after Kate as she left, wondering why it was so hard to get her to accept his help and take the painkillers. It wasn't that much of a big deal and if it would make her life easier, then why was she fighting him at every turn? His mother returned to the room and, looking around turned to him.

"Where did Kate go?"

"She was tired and went to lie down," he sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. "I just don't understand why she won't let me help her. She won't even take the painkillers anymore."

"Richard, she's a single mother, and a detective, she's used to being extremely independent. I really don't think that she lets even her closest friends look after her much, and you've known her for less than a week. It's not surprising she keeps shutting you out, and rejecting the painkillers is one way she can stay in control. Don't push her and just be there if she wants someone to talk to, that's all you can do. Trust me; don't go trying to fix everything unless she asks you to. Anyway, how's your writing going?"

"Good actually, I think I'm almost finished the next book. I just need to write a few more chapters and I think I'll be done. Well, there'll still be some things that will need fixing or changing, but mostly done. In fact I think I'll work on that now, the sooner I can get it finished, the sooner Gina will be off my back for more chapters," he headed back to his study, checking on Kate on his way passed. He smiled softly when he saw that she was already asleep and had curled herself into a loose ball in the centre of his king sized bed. She looked just like a small child in her parents' bed.

He must have lost track of time while writing, because when a noise interrupted him and he checked the clock it was almost time for Alexis and Jack to get home. He figured he may as well wake Kate up now so she could have a shower and get dressed before the kids showed up. He heard the noise again, it sounded like a whimper, and it was coming from Kate's room.

When he entered her room it became apparent that she was having a nightmare, she was tossing and turning, trying to escape an invisible assailant. She whimpered again and Rick could see tears trailing their way down her face. She buried herself deeper into the bed, hiding her face in the pillow. He reached for her, hoping to shake her awake, but as soon as his hand made contact with the skin of her arm, her right arm swung at him and she cried out in pain, sitting bolt upright in the bed. He then noticed that she was wearing nothing but her bra and panties, and he felt his body react to the expanse of creamy white skin that was visible, but then mentally scolded himself; now was not the time for thoughts like that.

He reached for her again, now that she was awake, hoping to be able to give some comfort, but was soon as his hand entered her line of sight, she flinched back form him. He tried not to be hurt by this, but it must have shown on his face regardless, because her expression immediately turned apologetic.

She was using her left hand to support and massage her right shoulder and Rick realised that she must have hurt it when she swung at him.

"I'll get you some painkillers, okay?" She just nodded, probably grateful to have him out of the room for a while although she hadn't seemed to notice that she was only in her underwear with Rick in the room.

When he returned, Kate had cleaned up her face and had managed to slip on an oversized top over her underwear and was attempting to button it up one handed. She blushed when she noticed him, but he just made sure his eyes never left her face and handed her the glass of water and two of the codeine tablets before leaving again.

He searched the house for his mother and sent her in to check on Kate, hoping that Kate would be less embarrassed with the older woman in the room than Rick and then made a mental note to offer Kate a massage at some point, after all, it was sort of his fault she had hurt her shoulder again.

About ten minutes after Alexis and Jack retuned from school Martha and Kate reappeared. Kate looked a lot better in Rick's opinion and she had her arm in a sling.

She gave Rick an apologetic smile. "Sorry about before. I guess now we know why the surgeon told me to sleep in the arm brace."

Rick waved her apology off but before he could speak Alexis and Jack cane down the stairs. Kate gave Jack a hug and started questioning him about his day, and Rick did the same with Alexis before going to fix them a snack. Alexis trailed into the kitchen after him.

"Me and Jack were wondering if we could go and see a movie tonight. You and Detective Beckett can come too if you'd like. I think Grams wants to go out with some friends from the theatre."

"You'll have to ask Kate, but it's fine with me. What movie?"

"Were thinking the Muppets, it looks really cool."

"I'm so coming then, I love the Muppets!"

"Why are we talking about the Muppets?" Kate asked as she and Jack walked into the kitchen.

"Because we're going to go see it!" Rick crowed triumphantly as Kate and Jack both raised an eyebrow in freakish symmetry.

Kate turned to Alexis. "Want to explain what your dad is trying to say?" She asked jokingly.

"Well, me and Jack want to go see the Muppet, so I asked dad and now he wants to come too. You are invited too Detective Beckett, if you wanna come you can."

"That sounds great," Kate grinned, happy to get out of Castle's apartment. "When are we going?"

"We've checked the times, and it's showing at 6.30 tonight, we figured we could get dinner somewhere afterwards or something," Alexis shrugged. "We didn't really think that far ahead to be honest."

…

By 8.25 the movie was finished and Rick was looking for somewhere to eat that was not too fancy but not too 'McDonald's-y' either. In the end, after an our or so of wandering around trying to find somewhere that appealed to everyone Kate mentioned that she was feeling rather tired, and Rick thought that maybe she was just trying to save him from finding a place to eat, but looking over at her she did look rather tired and somewhat more pale than usual.

They all headed home in a cab that Rich was lucky enough to hail for them and when the got back to Rick's apartment, he phoned for some pizzas to be delivered while Kate rested on the couch and Alexis and Jack discussed video games.

Alexis and Jack decided on playing guitar hero and Rick joined in after giving Kate some more pain meds while waiting for the pizza to arrive. When the doorbell went signalling the pizza had arrived he brought it into the living room along with napkins only to find Kate fast asleep, and Jack and Alexis sprawled on the remaining seats looking tired as well.

"Do you guys actually want food or do you just want to go to bed?" Rick asked quietly, mindful not to wake Kate up.

Alexis mumbled something unintelligible and then shuffled up to bed, followed closely by Jack. Rick shrugged and put the pizza in the fridge, they could eat it for lunch tomorrow, and after all, pizza was best cold anyway. He wasn't worried about any of them being overly hungry; the amount of popcorn and lollies they had consumed during the movie was enough to keep them full for weeks.

He looked at Kate, debating whether or not to try and move her to her bed, she wouldn't be that hard to carry, from what he had seen earlier today she was very skinny, almost unhealthily so, that was one of the reasons he had bought so much junk food at the cinema, not that she had eaten much of it but it was the thought that counts. He decided against moving her, she looked comfortable enough and he was worried that he would wake her up while moving her and she wasn't getting enough sleep as it was. He was also afraid she would try and hit him again and injure herself further so he just got a blanket from the linen closet and covered her with it. Even tough he knew it was somewhat creepy and odd, he just felt like watching her, observing her as she slept, not stalkerish at all, he told himself. Before he could slip up to the spare room, he ended up falling asleep in the recliner he had been sitting in.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Okay, I'm really sorry about how epically long this has taken. I sort of disappeared of the face of the planet for a while. Real Life is insane! This chapter is for docvap who kicked my butt into gear and got me to hurry up and get another chapter up. Thank you so much for that. Also, a huge thanks to everyone that has reviewed, alerted and/or favourited this story. I promise it will get finished, it just could take a while…**

**This chapter is a shorter one than usual but I hope you all enjoy it none the less. If you have any ideas that would make my writing better, please just let me know.**

Kate stood nervously in the elevator, picking at the staple holding the papers in her hands together fully aware that Rick was watching her closely. When the doors opened however, she strode into the 12th precinct, the butterflies in her stomach hidden by the practiced confidence in her step, the usual hum of activity that surrounded the homicide floor even when there was no ongoing investigation was broken by the click of her heels against the wooden floor and Kate felt like glaring at the detectives and uniforms that stared as she made her way to Captain Montgomery's office.

"Yo, Beckett," Esposito called as she was about to enter the office. "There's no way you can be back already, it's barely been a week. What're you doin here?"

"Nice to know you want me back Espo," Kate replied rolling her eyes as she turned to face Esposito and Ryan's twin enquiring gazes. "I have an appointment with the department shrink on Thursday, and don't look at me like that, you know it's standard procedure. They need to be sure that I'm fit to return to work and have no psychological issues and all that. After I've been cleared I can come back to work and do paperwork and stuff. I can't return to the field until I'm cleared by the physio," she made a face at that, and then held up the papers in her hand. "I just need to give Montgomery these papers and then all I have to do is find something to do for the next three days."

"Beckett, my office, now," Captain Montgomery called out as if just speaking his name had made him appear.

Kate rolled her eyes at the other detectives and headed in to the office, at the Captain's stern look, she held up the papers in defence.

"I thought you'd want to know how I'm going as soon as possible, Sir."

"You know, Beckett, you don't have to rush back, take some time off and spend it with your kid if you want to. You could do with a break and I'm sure Jack would love to spend more time with you considering how busy everything was before you got injured."

Kate nodded. "I think I might take some more time off, Sir, Jack has holidays soon and I'd like to actually spend some time with him over the holidays, especially with the shock he's just had," she gave a rueful smile. "It's not like I'll be doing anything more than paperwork for a while anyway, so the boys won't miss me too much."

She walked towards the office door, turning back to Montgomery as she opened the door and giving him a small smile before heading out to rejoin her team and the mystery writer that had been following her around like a lost puppy since he'd met her.

Rick was sitting at her desk he had been looking at the case files and photos of her and Jack that decorated her desk, as well as anything interesting he found. By the time she left the Captain's office he'd grown bored of that, and when she reached him he was spinning in the chair like a child.

"Rick, you're worse than Jack! You'll break my chair, and then you'll be paying for the replacement," she frowned in his direction while Esposito and Ryan snickered in the background. Whirling around to face them Kate snapped "Oh, don't think you two are getting away with this either, you know I don't let Jack spin in the chair, why would you think anyone other child would be different?"

"Aww, Kate that hurts! It was an unnecessary insult. You wound me!" Rick replied dramatically, pouting at her. "I'm not a child."

"Oh, really writer boy? Then how come you always seem to act like one. Honestly, sometimes you are more immature than Alexis and Jack - Actually," she abruptly changed her thought. "Most of the time you are more immature than them"

Rick shrugged. "It's more fun. And its writer _man_, not boy, _man_."

Kate merely replied by raising a sceptical eyebrow. She then seemed to remember where they were and looked around somewhat awkwardly. "I suppose we should let you guys get back to work then. I'll see you guys round. Jack's been asking when he can come and visit again, so I might bring him in when he's on holiday. That is, as long as you don't have anything too gruesome on the murder board by then." She waved a quick goodbye and dragged Rick to the elevator.

"Well I don't think tat could have gone any worse," Kate grumbled as they waited for the elevator.

"I thought it went well to be honest, at least you still have a job," Rick joked, trying to get her to relax. The joke fell flat and only earned him a glare.

Don't ever go through my stuff again, Castle," she warned him. "I realise I didn't actually tell you not to, but it is common courtesy not to go through people's stuff, especially without permission."

Rick swallowed nervously; he knew Kate was a private person, why did he have to go and screw up his chance to get to know her as more than just vague friends because of his childish curiosity. He wasn't sure how much damage he'd done to their developing friendship, but he hoped it was reparable. He'd just have to think really hard and come up with a plan that would be sure to make her forgive him.


End file.
